Book Reflections: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

-Oscar Wilde

First, I must admit that I chose a career that lies inside the Academy, what we insiders call higher education (college) at large. However, just as probably any person in any given field would admit, there are certain aspects of the Academy that leave me disenchanted. One of those aspects is how matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion are often handled. The aforementioned trinity of Academy buzz words are rather standard, though often lightly upheld.

George Floyd. For at least several reasons, a large portion of the American consciousness decided to care about Black American oppression and racism. Meanwhile, those like me who are intimately knowledgeable of how systemic white supremacy works collectively yawned and kept it moving with life as usual. This is to say that we were not jaded; rather, this was America as usual and we still continued in our pursuits for justice as normal.

Before I start my work day, I peruse a daily digest from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed to warm up my brain and stay abreast of what’s happening in the Academy nationwide. Not longer after George Floyd, I read Jason England and Richard Purcell’s article in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled, Higher Ed’s Toothless Response to the Killing of George Floyd. Here it was. I found two Black men in the Academy who also yawned after the Academy and the Nation at large decided to care about Black Black American oppression and racism.

I emailed the two Black gentlemen, who were professors at Carnegie Mellon University, to let them know there was a fellow Black member of the Academy who yawned just like them. They were please and they replied to my email, solidifying our solidarity.

After yawning, through the diversity talks and whatnot, they got my attention! How? Free books! They were offering free book related to matters of racism, justice, and the rest. I perused the book list and saw something interesting, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. To quote Rorschach from the legendary graphic novel series, Watchmen, hurmmm? I requested the book.

The role of a critic is interesting. This is titled Book Reflections because I did not want to be a critic. I understand the need for constructive criticism, but critics have no vested interest and had nothing to do with the creatives’ process while having all sorts of opinions that can influence consumers. Therefore, my reflections are meant to inspire thought, reflection, and curiosity rather than my assessment of the literature. I would encourage you to read it for yourself because it is very likely that you will pick up your own reflections that will be unique.

Reflection: The Origins of “The Hood”

My upbringing was interesting. While I grew up solidly working class, I remain unsure just how hood I was. Or was I what some would call hood adjacent? We were decent, normal people. However, there were times in which one would say I lived in the hood as a child. Regardless, home was just home. And here’s the thing: the overwhelming majority of people in the hood were normal, decent, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. But the question still remained: where was the wealth?

Rothstein chronicled the history of discriminatory housing, lending, and renting practices that demonstrated a lack of Constitutional enforcement at best and outright government-sanctioned at worst. Throughout the book were many examples of how Black citizens who easily would have qualified for homeownership were shut out of housing developments. One of the first examples Rothstein provided was the story of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, California.

Sans much of the details, laborers were needed during the World War II effort, and Black and White worked side by side. The laborers needed housing, so government-funded housing projects were constructed. Yes, the same projects that are notorious these days were occupied by all people, mostly White. In fact, there were certain housing projects that were white-only. Yep. Anyway, per the movement by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, homeownership for Americans became a priority. As a result, there was rapid development of suburban homes. Henceforth, White people living in the projects were ushered into brand new homes with little to no money down, low interest, and often fully furnished. Amortized loans, which was fairly new at this time, meant homeowners could become partial owners of their home before completely paying the loan off (or home equity in short). Meanwhile, the Black laborers who were doing the same job earning the same money were shut out of new developments in Palo Alto, and relegated to stay in an increasingly crowded East Palo Alto with less commerce, eroding infrastructure, and overall less wealth.

The outright racism and indignity is obvious. I do not need to go further into that. But let’s look at Palo Alto versus East Palo Alto home prices. Today, the average home price for Palo Alto, CA is $3.1 million. Meanwhile, the average price for East Palo Alto is $935,000, more than 3 times less than Palo Alto. (As an aside, I understand $935,000 is far more than the national average home price of $272,000. But this is California where a $1 million dollar home may only get you a box depending on the area, so it is important to focus on the relativity). Think about that. Those who were able to get into Palo Alto merely a few generations ago had the option of developing that generational wealth for their progeny. Meanwhile, Black people relegated to East Palo Alto and their progeny did not get to benefit as much, if at all, due to the initial discriminatory practices when the developments were first constructed during the 1940s. This practice has not completely gone away, so one can draw the connections as to why the modern-day hood exists. And this is just one small microcosm of the prevailing story of how wealth is deprived from Black people via housing and lending practices (and we are not discussing wage suppression, discriminatory lending practices, discriminatory hiring practices, and the weaponization of law and criminality against Black people).

Reflection: The Grand Konspiracy

Derek Chauvin was just convicted of murdering George Floyd. My lack of care for the trial concerned me at first. But I realized something. My lack of care is due to being very close to a self-actualized attitude about race in America. When Floyd was murdered, America was going through an existential crisis due to COVID-19. This was the first time in my life I noticed a palpable, collective dread by White Americans, even more so than the September 11th [, 2001] attacks. Though conjecture on my part, the COVID-19 dread mixed with Floyd being utterly and obviously murdered (if not lynched) for all of America to see uninhibited by the usual distractions of a normal life. Soon thereafter, damn near every corporation told us that they believed Black Lives Matter (I’m not going to touch Black Lives Matter, that is all I’ll say). Then here comes the national discourse and outrage, feigning as if we need to have a discussion about race in America…as if racism hasn’t existed in America for 400 years.

We all know what racism is. We all know what needs to be done. For one, stop talking to Black people about what needs to be done because (for the last time) Black people are not the perpetrators of their own racial victimhood. Racism, especially anti-Black racism, is embedded in the existence of America. Therefore, everything is connected to racism, and Rothstein thoroughly chronicles many stories and records of said embedded racism with respect to housing, lending practices, employment, government, politics, and law. The establishment maintains the code of racism. The victims of racism are as such. And those in the middle either benefit from the code or play both sides when it conveniences them, such carrying out anti-Black racism while claiming minority status and gaining associated benefits. Again, we all know what it is.

Given that we all know what it is, I just flat out ignore coverage or any media regarding race in America. And when it comes to mainstream media, they are peddling race porn to stir up emotions for the victims and perpetrators alike to sell advertisements. Politicians know what the problem is. So when politicians suggest that we need to have a special sub-committee so that they can begin the process of considering a facilitation of dialogue about some of the issues regarding race that could have some deleterious effects on Black people, that is just a stalling tactic to placate Black people and keep both side happy by enabling feel-good emotions while not actually doing anything to resolve racism. This is mainly why abandoned the left and its political agenda starting about the last one to two years of the Obama administration. They use us for our votes, pat us on the head and do the latest “Black dance” or whatever, and provide legislation-backed benefits for other groups.

Conclusion

To reiterate, my aim was to refrain from providing a typical book review or criticism especially because I understand the arduousness of the writing process. Nonetheless, I am glad I selected The Color of Law for my reading when it was offered by my current employer. While books cover the topics discussed by Rothstein, I recommend this work in addition to those because it provided historical, legal, social, and political context for what we are seeing today in terms of the lost wealth and subsequent wealth inequality.

Before I go, I want to make sure I balance this entry by discussing Black resilience and the burgeoning Black Renaissance 3.0. For the last six years, I was stowed away in the murky waters of full-time employment, graduate studies, a committed relationship and engagement (and the wedding planning), managing an estate, moving to a new state, and restarting my career. All that is to say that my head was buried in the sand. Now that I am free from everything I mentioned, I see that we Black people are waking up. We are getting back to our self-made ethos that carved our way out of slavery. We had a sense of business, community, and family. And yes, “L-L-C Guy” is hella annoying. But at least dude is trying. Shouts to L-L-C Guy. There are two parts to victimhood. The first is the act of the perpetrator, which cannot be controlled by the victim. The second part is a choice: to remain a victim or to fight. Black people are fighting, but there is one last caveat that will perpetually stymie our Renaissance: Black Man and Black Woman unity. Perhaps more on that later…